2012 budget injects half a billion dollars in dental care

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said, ”Improving our dental health system has been a priority for me since I first became health minister and this package delivers hope to those who have waited too long on public dental lists.”

The new budget has targeted $345 million to be distributed from January 1 to around 400,000 Australians who have been waiting on the public dental list, unable to afford to see a private dentist. A further $170 million will be used to establish a national dental scheme, funding more graduate training places and paying dentists to relocate to remote areas.

”It will lay the foundation for a new way of providing dental services that will ensure that those most in need will get care when and where they need it,” Minister Plibersek said.